Subject: Re: Yet another explanation for "barbecue", and matters even more important

From: [email-masked] (Michael Israel)
Date: 13 Dec 1993 08:53:41 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Cameron Laird) writes:
>"These so-called *buccaneers*, mainly of French Huguenot and British
>origin, sought both meat provisions to support their piratical activi-
>ties on the Spanish Main and contraband hides for export to northwestern
>Europe.  . . .  Among their more direct gifts, *barbecue*, the cooking
>of entire cow or pig carcasses elevated over a slow fire, is derived I
>feel from the French *Barbe et queue*, meaing the whole animal, 'beard
>and tail.'"  This is one tiny gem from a marvelous recent publication,
>
>	Jordan, Terry G.
>	1993	North American Cattle-Ranching
>		Frontiers:  Origins, Diffusion,
>		and Differentiation.  University
>		of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

That etymology sounded just a little bit too clever, so I decided
to bother to check it out.  

The Oxford English Dictionary has the word coming from the Spanish 
*barbacoa*, itself apparently adapted from the Haitian.  The word 
originally referred to a 'framework of sticks set upon posts' which 
could be used for sleeping on or for holding meat above a fire.  
Earliest citations are from 1661 and 1697.

The OED is aware of the *barbe a` queue* etymology, but dismisses it
as "an absurd conjecture suggested merely by the sound of the word."
Pity.  It certainly is the more interesting etymology, but I am 
inclined to take the OED's word on this.

Michael Israel